Ports unite to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Creation of coalition of seven ports authorities, including those in Los Angeles and Long Beach, announced at Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.    Seven port authorities have joined together in an initiative called the World Ports Climate Action Program that seeks to address global warming.
   The program was announced Thursday by Allard Castelein, the president and chief executive officer of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.
   Shipping and port activites generate “a significant amount of greenhouse gases. You could compare the emissions to the emission profile of a country like Germany,” Castelein told the audience at the summit. “So the Port of Rotterdam has decided to take action.”
    He said his agency along with port authorities in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Hamburg, Antwerp and Barcelona have created a “coalition of the willing” to reduce greenhouse gases.
    He said the coalition will focus on:
    • Increasing the efficiency of supply chains using data technology;
    • Increasing the use of renewable energy to power ships when they are in port;
    • Powering cargo-handling equipment with renewable energy; 
    • And decarbonizing ship fuels.
    The port said last year that “around 18 percent of the Dutch CO2 emissions are generated by the Port of Rotterdam.”
   Castelein said the port is investing in increasing energy efficiency, carbon capture and circular economy initiatives.
   Stientje van Veldhoven, the Dutch minister for the environment, told the conference that the Netherlands has a goal to reduce greenhouse gases by 2030 and plans to close down coal-fired power plants before 2030. She said the country is building the world’s largest offshore wind farm and that by 2030 new power will be created from zero-emission sources.
   She also noted with the world population headed toward 10 billion people, “when we want to conquer climate change, we need to look beyond the energy question and address resources.”
   She said the Netherlands has committed to halving resource use by 2030.
   “We want to be a completely circular economy by 2050, a no-waste economy … that reuses — making new concrete from old concrete, new plastic from old plastic.”